Backtracking the North Shore

 Wednesday, September 28

Click here for a video of Day 3 of our North Shore Road Trip!

Another blue sky day. It was chilly, but I will take cool over rain any day. We ate breakfast, packed up the car and checked out of the apartment around 9 am. Today we were driving back to Duluth and hoping to hit some of the places on my "master itinerary" that we had not visited two days ago.

I am kicking myself for not taking better notes on this day. I am trying to jog my memory by looking at a bunch of photos but I am not going to promise that I will remember all of the names and details of what we saw. 

Our first stop after leaving Grand Marais was at the trail for Cascade Falls. I hadn't included this on my original itinerary, but my daughter-in-law said it was one of their favorites from their trip earlier in the summer. 

There was a handy pullout with parking for several cars right next to the bridge over Cascade River. We followed the advice on the sign and walked across the bridge and began the trail on the east side of the river.

It was a nice hike. Sometimes on a dirt path, other times on a boardwalk or over foot bridges. Cascade River was an appropriate name because the water literally cascades downhill towards Lake Superior forming several waterfalls as it drops in elevation. Here is what I found on the website gowaterfalling.com:

The Cascade River is aptly named. There are a large number of drops of varying sizes on its 17 mile course. It drops 900 feet in its final 3 miles, and there are 4 significant drops in the final quarter mile, all located in Cascade River State Park. In addition to the waterfalls, the narrow, twisted rocky gorge carved out by the river is fascinating.

 

Looking up the river from this vantage point you can see the cascading falls.

There were small pops of color, but nothing spectacular.

The view of Lake Superior from the trail.

I had been following the Minnesota Fall Foliage reports and knew the colors were running much later this year. This is what the report looked like for the last week of September. 

But I also knew that the North Shore experiences two waves of fall color. The first trees to change are the maples inland. A couple of weeks later, the birch trees along the shoreline do their thing. 

Originally I thought it would be fun to ride the gondola at the ski resort near Lutsen . I have seen incredible photos with a rainbow of tree colors on the mountain. Sort of like this one taken on the same day several years ago:

Bright reds of the maple ridge in Lutsen (from the Summit Express Gondola). September 28, 2015
Photo from https://northshoreexplorermn.com/

But the trees along Highway 61 were showing almost no signs of color. I could not imagine there would be anything different going inland just a few miles so I made the decision to skip the gondola ride. BIG MISTAKE. More on this later...

Next stop...Cross River Falls...quick and easy. The falls go right under the bridge on Highway 61 over the Cross River.

Cross River Falls

Getting to our next stop required turning off of Highway 61 and going north a few miles on Highway 1. We missed the trailhead at first and had to backtrack a bit, but then it was less than a half mile walk through the woods to get to Illgen Falls. The 40-foot falls are part of Tettagouche State Park, but not accessible from the park's trail system.

Illgen Falls

Looking downstream from the falls.
It is possible to get down to the base of the falls, but it wouldn't be easy.

An interesting tree on the trail.

When my oldest son looked at my itinerary, he suggested driving even further up Highway 1 to Finland where he said the views were amazing. The high elevation of that area would provide a panoramic view of the beautiful fall trees. Once again I assumed this would be a waste of time since there would be no color. Big mistake AGAIN. 

Instead we went back to Highway 61 and drove just a short distance where we turned at the sign for the Tettagouche State Park Visitor Center. I couldn't believe the number of cars in the large parking lot!! Obviously autumn is prime season on the North Shore. We have relaxed a bit in our social distancing, but still I didn't feel the need to go into the packed visitor center. There were picnic tables outside where we enjoyed our lunch. No photos other than this little chipmunk who hung out with us while we ate.

A couple of miles further on Highway 61 brought us to the Palisade Head Road. The steep and very windy road ended at a small parking lot at the top of the hill. Mostly full, we were able to squeeze into one open space. 

I get a little sick to my stomach just watching climbers on TV so when I saw the sheer cliff I kept my distance from the edge (as in I barely left the parking lot.) From there I did have a good view looking across to Shovel Point.

Shovel Point

Bob eventually convinced me that I could move a little further out on the cliff and still be safe. There was a low rock wall at the edge that gave me a small sense of security and from my new spot I could see the sheer cliff of Palisade head! How incredible!! We watched climbers getting ready to descend down the face of the cliff. This was the same place where Bob took a rock climbing class that began his passion of climbing many years ago. 

Palisade Head, so much higher than it appears in this photo!

Continuing my quest for waterfalls we stopped to see Beaver River Falls. Not only was this a quick and easy stop (the falls can be viewed from the highway bridge) but the clean restrooms at the pullout were a bonus! 

Photo taken by the troll under the bridge (Bob) 😄

Looking downstream as the river flows into Lake Superior

And for our last waterfall of the day...Gooseberry Falls. Gooseberry wins the popularity contest when it comes to North Shore waterfalls. The trail to the falls is paved and not very long which makes it accessible to most. There were actually quite a few people at the falls but I tried to be creative in my photographs to make it look as if we were alone!

A rare photo of me. 😉

I think the tree roots look sorta like snakes!

Playing around with the live photo setting on my iPhone. 

An overload of waterfalls for one day, huh? Gooseberry was the last one (at least for the day) and time for us to get to our hotel in Duluth.

As we were approaching Two Harbors, I looked up the Duluth ship schedule on my phone to see if any large ships would be arriving or leaving the harbor while we were there. It was close to 3:00 at the time and I saw that a large ship was due to come in at Two Harbors soon. I wasn't sure how accurate the schedule was so we pulled into the small visitor center as we got into town. The nicest lady was working and gave me a map to show where we should go for the best view of ships coming in. Turns out she was directing us to the breakwater where we had been on Monday. 

Another couple also stopped in and had just come from the north. They had ridden the gondola up to the ski resort at Lutsen and were RAVING about the incredible fall colors they had seen. Yes...I was jealous and mad at myself at the same time because we didn't take time to go up in the gondola. Also after getting home I started seeing lots of beautiful photos on social media from Finland (where our son suggested we go). Double fail.

We drove down to the harbor and walked out to the lighthouse on the breakwater.

Two Harbors Lighthouse

There was no sign of any ships coming in, but a large ship was just pulling out from the ore dock. We got excited thinking it would sail right by us as it left, but after pulling away from the first dock it backed in next to the other dock. 

The John C. Munson

On to Duluth. It was after 5 pm when we checked into our hotel, The Lift Bridge Lodge. The hotel was a bit of a splurge for us but you can't beat the location…right at the end of Canal Park by the lift bridge and other points of interest.

Photo credit: visitduluth.com

There are quite a few restaurants in Canal Park (near our hotel) but after seeing an ad for Red Lobster's "endless shrimp" we decided it sounded pretty good. When we arrived, the hostess said it would be about 15 to 20 minutes to get a table so we waited. A good hour later, we finally were seated. The issue seemed to be that the kitchen was understaffed but once we got to our table our orders came fairly quickly. The shrimp choices were yummy. When we declared that we were stuffed, the waitress suggested ordering more to take with us! 

The health app on my iPhone said we walked 4 miles during the day which is about 4 miles more than I normally walk. 😆 Those beds in the hotel looked pretty good! 

A Stone's Throw from Canada - Grand Portage

Tuesday, September 27

Click here for a video of Day 2 of our road trip along the north shore of Lake Superior!

Only a small slice of Lake Superior could be seen from the front window of our AirBnB apartment, but when I got up I was wishing for a better view. From the colors in the sky it looked like a beautiful sunrise and I would have loved to see it over the lake. But sunrises are early...and it was cold outside...so I didn't. 

After breakfast, we gathered up some lunch fare and put it in the smaller of two coolers we had brought. The morning was chilly when we set out for the day, but the forecast was for temps in the mid-50's by afternoon.

Less than 10 miles north of Grand Marais we made our first stop of the day at Paradise Beach. The notes on my itinerary say "good place to look for agates." Looking for agates is the easy part. Finding them among the thousands (millions?) of other rocks on the beach isn't so easy. This place really would be paradise for a little kid who loves to throw rocks into the water!

Bob took off walking down the beach while I found a suitable log to sit on and enjoy the solitude and sounds of the waves lapping at the shore. He walked for over an hour! 

Can you see Bob off in the distance? I was happy to sit on this log and listen to the waves washing over the rocks. At times it almost sounded like wind chimes!

Bob didn't have much luck finding agates, but he did come back with a bunch of driftwood sticks. He uses the sticks as handles for pottery spoons that he creates.

An ore boat passed by while I was waiting on Bob to return.

About 35 miles north (east?) of Grand Marais, our next stop was at Hollow Rock Resort. I was a little nervous about pulling into a private resort, but have since read that the beach is open to the public. The resort itself wasn't our destination, but rather to see the natural arch that gave the resort its name.

The Hollow Rock Resort was pretty secluded, but the view was outstanding!

The back side of Hollow Rock.

At the very tip of Minnesota's Arrowhead Region lies the community of Grand Portage. It is home to the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and one of the earliest Ojibwe settlements in Minnesota.

We pulled into the Grand Portage National Monument and parked at the Heritage Center. The visitor center was filled with displays and information on the history of the area from the Ojibwe culture to the Northwest Company fur trading. 

Heritage Center (NPS Photo)

This was an interesting display. A video projection made it look and sound
as if people were inside the teepee.

It was past noon when we walked out of the visitor center. There was plenty more to see at the National Monument, but first lunch. With Google's assistance, we found a small picnic area nearby where we ate. The wind coming off the lake was brisk, but you couldn't beat the view!

A flock of geese floated by while we were eating.

Bob's double hat situation was strange, but it kept his ears warm and the sun out of his eyes. 
He goes more for function than fashion.😄

Returning to the parking lot at the Heritage Center, we walked across the road and down the path towards the recreation of the Northwest Company Depot. 

Outside the walls of the trading post was an Ojibwe village with several types of birch bark homes. 

Just inside the stockade walls of the Northwest Company Depot was the Canoe Warehouse. During the time when Grand Portage was the center of the fur trading world, canoes were used much like semi trucks are today to carry goods and supplies. The Canoe Warehouse housed replicas of some of these large vessels and replicas of the loads they would have carried.

Docents in period clothing were available in some of the buildings which added to the experience.

This is an example of the type and size of load that might have been carried in the canoes.

The four wooden buildings at the Northwest Company Depot have been recreated on the archeological footprints of some of the original buildings. 

The kitchen.

Inside the kitchen.

The Great Hall. The hall included four bedrooms and an open great room used for meeting and exchanging gifts with trading partners and for other business. 

Some of the world's richest men would have gathered in this room to conduct business.

Bedroom in the Great Hall.

I was fascinated by the reproduction wavy glass used in the window panes.

On the path back to our car, Bob picked some of these rose hips and
enjoyed rose hip tea later in the evening.

Besides the national monument and town, there is also a Grand Portage State Park and that is where we headed next. The park is located right at the Canadian border...and I mean RIGHT at the border!

I snapped this photo of the Canadian border crossing as we were turning into the state park.
Because of Covid restrictions, we chose not to cross the border.

The parking lot at the visitor center was packed so we didn't even go in. Instead we headed directly to the trail leading to High Falls, the highest waterfall in Minnesota. The one-mile round trip path is paved although at one point Bob took a detour down to a more rugged trail following along side the river.

There were three different viewing platforms once we reached the falls which let you check out the falls from different angles.

The land to the left side of the falls is in the U.S. and the right side is Canada.

It was around 4:30 pm by the time we got back to the parking lot and time to head back to the apartment. 

Highway 61 between Grand Portage and Grand Marais runs right along the lake shore compared to the high cliffs further south.

I'm not sure I can really explain this photo. 😕 One needs to see it in person!
We passed by quite a large property on Highway 61 (this is only a small section) that had piled up walls of driftwood. In amongst the wood they had placed all sorts of objects and doodads which are hard to see in the picture. UNIQUE and INTERESTING might be a good way to describe the place!

We stopped briefly near Artist Point in Grand Marais before going back to the apartment for dinner. The lighting was very poor, but I got a silhouette photo of Bob as he walked on the breakwater out to the lighthouse.

I was keeping an eye on the sky and the clock as we rushed through dinner. I was determined to see the sunset over the lake. However as we drove down the hill towards town I realized it was going to take some effort to find someplace where I could photograph the lighthouse without looking directly into the sun. In fact, the sun was so bright and so low in the sky that it was hard to keep from being blinded as we were driving.

Had I looked on Google Maps, our search would have been so much easier. There is actually a location called Grand Marais Marina Photogenic Point! Luck was with us and that was where we ended up by chance.

Grand Marais, Google Maps

A small flight of wooden stairs led to the top of a cliff overlooking the marina. I was a little nervous to go up at first (based on the sign!) but it turned out to be a perfect spot to get photos of the lighthouse during golden hour and watch the sunset. A lovely ending to our day!

A zoomed in view of the lighthouse.

Several other folks were on the cliffs including this guy who was fishing. We also met a man with the cutest golden doodle dog, Casey.

Sailing in the sunset.